


Sometimes I want to be human (for you)

by Abbie, RosieTwiggs



Series: Bound by Blood [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Vampire, F/M, Fic Challenge, Olicity Hiatus Project, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-06
Updated: 2014-07-06
Packaged: 2018-02-07 17:22:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1907457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abbie/pseuds/Abbie, https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosieTwiggs/pseuds/RosieTwiggs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity and Oliver clash over the way he chooses to do things, and Felicity begins to wonder just how much humanity he has left to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sometimes I want to be human (for you)

**Author's Note:**

> Another prompt fill, but it looks like I'll be writing more often for this universe.

Ken Williams was a widower. He was a father. He was a man who had made some mistakes in his life, some severe mistakes, but none that warranted having his life threatened by the vigilante.

Felicity’s eyes scanned her screens, several windows with information about Oliver’s next target opened in front of her. He hadn’t asked her to do an extensive background check – wasn’t interested in anything other than his sins, but Felicity had anyway.  _She_  was interested.  _She_  needed to know.

And Ken Williams was  _not_  a bad man. He was looking for love again, for crying out loud! His dating profile had him listed as a loving father looking for someone who would fit in to  _both_  of their lives, his  _and_  his son’s.

Oliver was halfway up the stairs to the foundry exit when Felicity activated a complete lockdown.

She heard him enter the keycode and pull at the door.

Nothing.

She heard him punch in the code again.

Silence.

And then –

“Felicity!”

Felicity jumped a little in her chair, grimacing as her new partner-in-vigilantism stomped towards her. Diggle caught her eye, the question clear in his eyes, but she just held a finger up to allay him.

She whirled to face Oliver as he drew near, squaring her shoulders, ready for a fight.

“What are you doing?” Oliver’s voice was low, dangerous, and for a moment she was reminded that it wasn’t only being a vigilante that made him dangerous.

She shook her head to clear it before gesturing towards her computers.

“Did you know that Ken Williams is the widowed father of a ten-year-old boy?” she asked. She took a deep breath. “I told you, I’m only in this to help Walter, _not_  to be an accessory to orphaning little kids!”

She could see Oliver’s eyes darken as he frowned at her, and then softly – so softly she could barely pick it out – he let out the faintest growl. It wasn’t a sound that any normal human could make.

“I’m just giving him a warning.”

Felicity swallowed nervously but stood her ground. Well, sat her ground, really, as she was till seated.

“Has it occurred to you that you could do some real good in this city? Beyond just recovering people’s stock portfolios and their savings accounts?”

She would have said more, but Oliver leaned down right into her personal space a moment later and she felt her breath leave her in a rush.

All at once, she was in that parking garage all over again, waiting for the inevitable pain of Oliver’s fangs piercing neck. She could feel his breath on her skin as his lips brushed ever so lightly against her ear before he spoke.

“You’re not the only one who knows how to reboot my system.”

She shivered, the motion trickling violently down her spine, rushing her blood to her fingertips, her toes, raising the hairs on her arms. There was no threat, veiled or otherwise to his words, but his voice was all made up of stormy intimidation, and the puff of air that whispered against her earlobe was almost a promise.

Of what?

Her head tilted ever so slightly to the left, exposing her neck just a little bit more. She heard Oliver’s breath hitch in her ear, and abruptly slammed back into herself.

She took a deep grounding breath through her nose, pulling away. “I made a mistake.”

“Getting in my way? I don’t disagree.”

“No!” Oliver’s voice still carried the same mesmerizing quality and Felicity shook her head to clear it, standing as she did so. For one moment she was almost in his arms, bent over backwards while trying to get him to move away, but then he was backing off.

“The mistake was signing on with you, even provisionally. You’re dangerous, Oliver. I knew it before, but this just – “

She swallowed and Oliver suddenly looked unsure. Felicity wrapped her arms around herself and frowned.

“I’m glad I was able to help you the other night. I’m glad you’re okay. But if this is how it’s going to be… You’re not – you’re not  _human_  Oliver. And if whatever happened to you on that island made you forget what it means to – I can’t, I _won’t_  be a party to that.”

The fight had drained out of him. She could see it in the wide-eyed stare he gave her as she turned to Diggle and apologized before walking out.

~*~

She had a bet going with herself how long it would be before Oliver came looking for her to convince her to keep his secret.

She won.

Oliver stood in the doorway to her office, looking hesitant.

“Where’s Digg?” she asked.

“He, uh… I asked him to wait downstairs. I wanted to talk to you alone.”

Felicity bit the inside of her cheek in apprehension, glancing at the still open door before nodding.

“Okay.”

“I -” he cleared his throat, clearly having some difficulty. “I didn’t really put my best foot forward yesterday, and I wanted to apologize.”

“What happened with Ken Williams?”

“Like I said, I just paid him a short visit and he returned the money in time to get his son to bed. No violence.”

Felicity nodded and they both fell silent. It was awkward for a moment before Oliver finally spoke up.

“I’m not – I’m not this thing you seem to think I am,” he said, moving further in to the room. Felicity pulled back slightly, watching him warily. She saw his face fall, but it didn’t stop her from asking her next question.

“You mean you’re  _not_  a vampire? Because I distinctly remember some  _very_ vampiric activities being performed on my neck…”

Oliver winced.

“No, I am, but I’m not – I’m still… I’m still  _human_ , Felicity. What they did to me, what they made me into on the island… It’s not like what you read about in books and see in movies. I’m still just a man.”

“So you mean you’re not one of the undead?” Felicity asked, her voice deadpan.

He laughed, but it was a bitter, shriveled thing, and Felicity hated it – wanted to hear him laugh for real. This time when he stepped forward again, she didn’t move away, let her fear slip from her fingertips. He reached for her hand, but raised his eyebrows in question before he took it. She nodded.

His skin was warm when he took her hand in his, raising it up to place against his chest. She spread her fingers against the firmness of his muscles, and any other time she might have been reduced to babbling, because, yeah,  _muscles_ , but she was distracted by the very distinct beat of a  _heart_.

She let out a breath. “Okay, so you’re not dead.”

Oliver shook his head. “No.”

“But you still need blood to survive.”

Oliver nodded. “It’s more like an addiction so severe that if broken would result in my death. Plus a few, um,  _extras_ …”

Felicity’s fingers curled into his shirt.

“What kinds of extras?” she asked, but immediately regretted the question. “You know what? Never mind. I already know some of them. I don’t even have a scar from when you bit me. I’ll find out the rest.”

Oliver was silent as she saw him internalize what she had just said.

“You’ll find out… You mean you’ll stay?”

Felicity bit her lip and she was sure she saw Oliver’s eyes flicker to her lips for a moment as he clenched his jaw and swallowed, but she ignored it.

“You’ll let me vet the people on the list before you go after them?”

Oliver nodded.

“Actually, Digg and I were hoping you might help us out with someone who  _isn’t_ on the list. A thief who collars his victims with bombs to get them to steal for him.”

“Oh my God, that’s terrible!”

Oliver smiled and nodded. “So you’ll help?”

Felicity looked down at her hand, still grasped in Oliver’s against his chest, then back up into his eyes. Compassionate eyes.  _Human_  eyes.

She nodded. “I’ll help.”


End file.
